Anna Rose’s recently released sophomore effort, Behold A Pale Horse manages to reflect Menken’s extraordinary growth as an artist, performer and as a person. On the sultry, country blues single, “Los Angeles,” Menken is a confident, commanding presence; the sort that radiates with a burning, inner strength and resolve won from hard-fought experience; but perhaps, more important, a woman who has grown comfortable with herself in every aspect — a rare thing, indeed. 

The story of the song itself is pretty easy to grasp and is based quite a bit on Menken’s own experience of heading to Los Angeles as a young(er) woman with dreams of fame and fortune, and she does so with novelistic detail — the narrator’s worn out boots; “the red-letter stares” she feels on her back as she curses out a lover or family member. Those details feel sound as thought they come from real and lived in experience. 

The official video for the song is appropriately Western-themed and was recently shot while Menken was in Los Angeles and is at points pretty badass.